


School Blood

by ronsparkyspeirs



Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-14
Updated: 2014-10-14
Packaged: 2018-02-21 02:50:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,078
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2451917
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ronsparkyspeirs/pseuds/ronsparkyspeirs
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Daryl dreams.</p>
            </blockquote>





	School Blood

 

He dreams of his brother sometimes. He dreams about the last time he saw him, about the first time he took Daryl fishing. Sometimes they go hunting, sometimes they’re at home, drinking and eating pizza, other times they’re at a bar and Daryl is getting drunk but Merle is never angry, never bitter, and neither is Daryl.

 

\------------------------------------------------

 

Laughter wakes him up, he sits up on the bumpy mattress and scrubs at his face with one hand. He looks around and sees that he’s back in the shitty apartment Merle had back before the turn, the air smells stale and of cigarettes; with a grunt Daryl pushes himself upright. He can hear murmured voices coming from the living room, Merle’s raspy laugh and a higher, gentle, voice; it’s a woman. The soft words make something in Daryl’s chest clench, he makes his way toward the hallway and her voice becomes clearer. _Oh god_ , his throat closes up and his eyes start burning like the way they did once upon a time at the back of a moonshine shack. He feels like a child and all he wants to do is wake up.

 

He reaches the end of the hallway and her back is toward him, sitting on the couch next to Merle, with her hair over her shoulders, wearing that silly yellow polo shirt she took from the country club. She’s talking animatedly, bends a leg at the knee and places her foot at the edge of the cushion; and when she giggles, Daryl shifts his weight, the movement causing Merle to look his way.

 

“Well, hey there sleeping beauty,” Merle drawls, “you been asleep for a long time.”

 

Daryl clears his throat, unsure of what to say when Beth turns around and gazes at him. Her eyes still the same shade of blue he remembers, her face scrubbed clean, a tiny smile on her lips.

 

“Did we wake you?” she asks, and all Daryl can do is shake his head. He stares at Beth mutely, like his voice stopped working, his mouth feels dry; he tries to speak but ends up opening and closing his mouth like a fish out of water which only causes Beth to smile at him even harder.

 

“What are you doing there, standing like a dummy? get your ass over here, we got pizza,” Merle says, breaking Daryl out of whatever trance he was in. He shuffles his way to the couch and is startled when Beth scoots over and pats the seat next to her, he looks over at Merle but he’s too busy lighting a cigarette.

 

“Beth was just telling me how you teaching her the crossbow,” Merle tells him, blowing a plume of smoke toward the ceiling. Daryl feels his face heat up, he doesn’t want Merle and Beth talking about him.  

 

“And how you’re a good teacher,” Beth adds, grinning at his sheepish expression.

 

“What are you doing here?” Daryl asks, his voice finally working. Beth looks startled for a minute and Merle reaches behind her to smack at Daryl’s head.

 

“That any way to talk to a lady?” Merle says, “you’re the one who invited her here.”

 

Daryl scoffs, he must really be losing it if Merle is being polite in his dream, but when he turns to look at Beth she has a somber look on her face, it reminds him of moonshine and angry words.

 

“Don’t you want me here?” she asks, quietly and when he doesn't answer right away her shoulders slump and she lowers her head.  

 

“Now see what you done? made Beth sad,” Merle scolds, fuck, Daryl wants to wake up already, this dream is just all kinds of wrong.  

 

He lets out of a sigh, “Nah, that ain’t it,” he tells Beth, “just, y’know,” he says, shrugging.

 

Beth lights up like a Christmas tree and lets out a laugh, “No, I don’t know,” she responds, grinning.

 

Daryl chews on his lower lip and shifts around on the sofa, _jesus christ_ , she ain’t even real, “I want you here,” he mumbles and Merle lets out a whoop, “Weren’t so hard to say, was it baby brother?”

 

Daryl shrugs again and lets Merle ramble on about one thing or another, Beth listening attentively; only interjecting with the occasional giggle as Merle tells her stories of when they were younger. At one point Merle gets up from the couch and acts out the first time Daryl went hunting with him, Beth smiles and shrieks with laughter when Merle makes an impression of Daryl running after a squirrel who’d managed to escape one of his bolts.

 

He knows this is his dream, a figment of his own imagination but the burning’s back in his eyes when he sees Beth and Merle together. The way Merle seems happy and enthusiastic, his hands waving everywhere when he speaks; he laughs in a way Daryl will never hear again. And Beth, she looks like the girl she would have been had the world not gone to shit, her eyes bright and her smile sincere.

 

“We’ll take you,” Merle says, startling him out of his thoughts, “ain’t that right Daryl?”

 

“Will you?” Beth asks eagerly, and Daryl looks in confusion as Merle rolls his eyes.

 

“Told her we’d go out fishin’” Merle explains, “once the weather clears up a bit.”

 

Daryl covers a sob with a cough, he can’t lose it, not here, not ever. He wonders what he did in his life that was so fucked up that he earned this, something he’ll never have. He clears his throat and says, “Yeah, we’ll go out soon.”

 

Beth leans in close, her face just inches away from his, it makes him freeze like a rabbit and the lack of movement makes Beth smile shyly, “Okay, but now you've gotta wake up.”

 

“Huh?”

 

“Wake up,” she whispers.

 

Daryl wakes up with a jolt, breathing loudly, he looks around and sees Carl looking at him, Rick and Abraham by the edge of the camp, keeping watch. It feels like there’s a lump stuck in his throat, making it hard for him to swallow, he shakes his head and gets his breathing back in control. Out in the middle of a forest, his crossbow beside him, he thinks of the girl; blonde mane, long and soft, wisps of frizzy hair haloed around her face, bright like a Sunday morning. He chews on his lip, there’s no room for dreams in this world anymore.

 


End file.
